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Sunday Snippet: Reading Plans and All Those Good intentions…

It is that time of year when we have all sorts of good intentions… We are all going to be nicer, eat healthier, sleep better than ever before,… Not really, but it is worth thinking about!!! The one place that you can really change your life is making sure you read your Bible every single day. Don’t make it a New Year Resolution; Don’t make it a goal… just read it.

So here are se7en quick Bible Reading Tips to keep you going when you would much rather give up:

Have a plan: Random readings never work. Flipping through the Bible and landing in a page and reading a couple of verses is actually not the way to go!!! Because inevitably we get busy and our random pickings start to happen on odd days and that very quickly becomes not random but never!!! A Bible plan takes away the random and to be honest if you know you have to read something tomorrow then it really helps you to keep coming back to it. I have posted a list of helpful Bible Reading Plan resources before and the different ways to read your Bible through in a year: chronological, book by book, and alternating an old testament book with a new testament book. Last year I tackled the Bible in ninety days with my kids…

If you don’t have a plan, then choose one: There are so many different reading plans available … that there has to be one that works for you… Take a look at all of these plans:

And yes there is an APP for everything: Even a Bible Reading Plan!!! Or any number of Bible Reading Plans… There are over fifty reading plans to have a look at here and you can pick and choose one to fit you…and you can look at any one of them and see if it works for you.

Have a time. Do it first: Trust me on this it is really hard to come back to. I have my Bible next to my computer and before I fire up the internet in the morning I read it. If you can’t do it first, then don’t leave it till last. The temptation to crawl under the covers at the end of the day is too much!!! Find a time when you are waiting in the car or waiting for a pot to boil!!! You need to find a time!!! I go through patches when I think I am just too busy… I’m not!!!

You have to know that you are never too busy to do what you want to do, blogging for instance!!! So you need to want to read the Bible. I know there was a time when I needed daily Bible notes to read the Bible and if that’s what you need then get them. Now I prefer to just read great chunks like the book it is. Often it is hard to read through sections especially when they seem dry and dull for example I never wanted to read those lists of begats and begets… until I discovered that they clearly demonstrate that God has a plan and then I really wanted to read them to discover just who was part of His plan. So if you need to do a little background reading then do it… read through the notes in a study Bible as you go – there are facts in those notes that you just couldn’t know without being a Biblical scholar.

Don’t give up, we all take time to make a habit: Seriously if you miss a day or two the world won’t end, just carry on where you left off. It is part of my kids school curriculum to do a chunk of Bible Reading everyday – they have done it their entire school life – it isn’t a habit they have to learn or even think about!!! There have even been times when I have had to say, as they get totally drawn into a great story, could you stop reading your Bible and come to dinner… I don’t of course, but don’t I wish that I had been reading my Bible daily since I had learnt to read.

Change the plan: If you hate the plan you are using then change it!!! It is more important that you read your Bible, than not reading it because you hate the plan. Pick another plan and keep going.

Don’t be too ambitious: The point is to keep on reading your Bible, just a bit at a time. If you have set aside a hundred chapters a day you may be overwhelmed and just give-up. Just do what you can do.

Don’t worry about what the neighbors think: Or anybody else for that matter. Seriously. No-one needs to keep tabs on you and see you pass or fail… whatever that is. If you are reading your Bible you pass… you don’t have to make copious notes, you don’t have to tick off a chart on the fridge… though I often do!!!

And the Se7en + 1th thing:

Just Read It: Seriously you don’t need any fancy tools, or plans or charts or anything… just a Bible!!! I find being grateful for my Bible really helps. So many people don’t have Bibles and would love one… For so many people they only have a small portion of the Bible in their own language and here I have the whole thing at my finger tips. It is amazing what a busy bee, or an avid reader you can be when you are truly grateful.

This year the father person has decided to do Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System… it is completely different to any Bible Reading I have done before, but I am happy to give it a try!!! You read a chapter a day from “ten different genres of book in the Bible.” Scroll down the link to see the plan. Not my usual chunk of reading and I am finding it hard to get into… but I like a challenge!!! So I have printed out the list small enough to be a book mark and I am going to be trundling through this for a while and see if I can grow to like it!!!

[…] of year when we all renew our efforts to work harder, do better, eat healthier, exercise more… and read our Bible Daily. How often have you told yourself that this will be the year that you read your Bible right the way […]